The development of new drugs for pharmacological treatment is expensive. The same applies to modern medical apparatus technology which, on a global scale only a few health systems in the world can still afford. Accordingly, there is need for treatment facilities of medical conditions which are cheap, affordable, versatile and safe. There also a need for treatment facilities which do not incur side effects, which can be adapted to the individual patient and which can be applied without the risk of major side effects.
There are a number of therapies involving the use of electrical currents, such as electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and magnetic seizure therapy (MST). Some of them are fairly drastic in effect; they have a very specific focus, and all of them are experimental.
WO20005/118061 describes a device for applying electrical impulses to the skin of a patient. Specific medical indications are not disclosed.